When you hear music for the first time, you either get really thrilled and excited, indifferent or you simply hate it. I must say that I got pretty thrilled when I first heard Jim Martin. Jim, who often has been called big, mean, sick and ugly, always was the outsider of FNM. How I got in touch with him? Well, I'm not at all into Faith No More, the band from which Jim was kicked out in 1993, but I got very curious after reading an interview with the guy in the Metal Hammer just recently. Actually, my curiousity was based on Jim Martin's connection with Metallica, but after listening to the CD, Milk and Blood, the connection with Metallica got less relevant.

On this particular record, the vocals and lyrics are perhaps not the major reasons for buying it; the texts and the pretty thin vocal input do not really appeal to me. But hey, what made me so thrilled then? The guitars, what else? I can't help that my heart completely melts as soon as it gets stung by crawling, sweeping, loving guitar-sound. Jim Martin certainly deserves to get more credit for his guitar than he got from FNM, though they don't seem to have found a real substitute yet!

On Milk and Blood I naturally have a few favourites such as "Loser", "Special tea" and "Fatso's World" ( where Jason Newsted wrote the lyrics ). He has also done a cover on the Pogues's "Navigator", which kicks bigtime. The songs on the CD streches all the way from '80ish-metal to blackish-metal, very much like FNM though faster and HEAVIER!!

Jim Martin has an extremely good crew on his record and the balance between the guitars, drums and bass is one of the better I have heard. My final words are: LISTEN AND ENJOY ! ! !